An early American philanthropist.(Brief Article)

Inscribed on the tomb of Elihu Yale (1649-1721) in Wrexbam churchyard in England is the following epitaph: "Born in America, in Europe bred./In Africa travell'd, and in Asia wed./Where long he liv'd and thriv'd; in London dedd' Such was the peripatetic life of one of this country's first philanthropists. The Asia in the inscription refers more specifically to Madras, India, where Yale lived and worked, first as an agent of the East India Company in 1671 and later as governor of Fort Saint George. He suffered through a financial scandal, but eventually returned to England in 1699 with a large fortune.

In January 1718 Cotton Mather wrote to Yale suggesting that a munificent donation to Collegiate College in New Haven might, in modern parlance, be a "naming opportunity" for the donor. Yale responded by giving the school several bales of goods, some books, and a portrait of George I by Sir Godfrey Kneller. These were sold for the then tidy sum of more than one thousand pounds, and in thanks the college an-flounced at its commencement in September 1718 that the name of the institution would henceforth be Yale College.

An exhibition mounted to celebrate the tercentenary of the college is on view until April 1 at the Yale University Art Gallery. It is entitled Circa 1701: Printed Portraits from the Time of Elihu Yale, and includes some fifty prints of ...